Despite the overall drop, there have been increases at some hospitals, such as University Hospital Limerick where 66 people were waiting, an increase on the 46 who were waiting yesterday.

At the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore, there was an increase to 45 people waiting on trolleys, up from yesterday’s figure of 41.There are also 41 people on trolleys at South Tipperary General Hospital.

Why are there a record number of people waiting for beds in Irish hospitals?

The HSE target states that no more than 236 people should be waiting on trolleys at any one time.

In 2006, 495 patients were awaiting entry into hospitals which was declared a ‘national emergency’ at the time.

The INMO claimed the current situation was ‘entirely predictable arising from the trend running right through November/December, which saw a significant deterioration in the daily trolley watch figures compared to previous years.’

The increase has been largely linked to an outbreak of influenza, and health officials say cases of the flu have doubled in the past couple of weeks.

Flu season is said to have hit Ireland three weeks earlier than expected

The flu season is believed to have arrived three weeks earlier than expected but Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Sligo University Hospital Fergal Hickey said it was not an unpredictable problem and until bed capacity was increased, it would continue to happen again and again.

What is the Minister for Health Simon Harris doing about it?

Simon Harris has described it as a ‘challenging time’ for the country’s hospitals

Minister for Health Simon Harris has said the country’s hospitals were facing a challenging time and he promised to review bed capacity.

Dr Fergal Hickey says the minister is currently ‘moving deck chairs around the Titanic.’

Hickey said: “Unless we solve the capacity problem we’re never going to get out of this mess. And no amount of politicking, talking about it, offering deckchair moving solutions is going to solve the problem.

“I mean what the minister talks about a lot of the time is moving deckchairs around the Titanic. We need to deal with the fundamental problem, which is a lack of capacity.

“There were 612 patients on trolleys yesterday. The minister is being disingenuous.”

He said: “Yesterday morning there were 612 citizens waiting on hospital trolleys, or for admission to our hospitals. This morning there were a shocking 602 citizens in the same situation. It is utterly unacceptable and beyond crisis point.

“All the while, the Minister for Health Simon Harris has persisted with peddling the line that the situation could not have been predicted.

“Such a proposition is nonsense. It has been clear for months now that this winter was going to see the health service at crisis point.

“Without proper investment in health and fundamental commitment to the public health service, the current trolley crisis, as a symptom of a health service in chaos, will continue.”

To suggest that [influenza season] is someway unpredictable or unprecedented is nonsense.

He said: “The Ministers’ Winter Initiative has failed as was predicted by medical unions. The IMO described the €40m as a ‘drop in the ocean’ compared to what was needed and the INMO said that it would fail without extra staff.”

Dr Hickey added: “The influenza, at a normal background level, is 18 cases per 100,000 people. At the moment, we have 46.7 cases. And this is nowhere near what it’s likely to get to, which is 80.
“To suggest that [influenza season] is someway unpredictable or unprecedented is nonsense.

“That’s the nature of an influenza season, the cases increase exponentially over weeks, reach peak and then tail off in a similar fashion. This information is known. The only issue is it occurred two or three weeks earlier than expected.”